March 24, 2005
By Aaron Klein
© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com
JERUSALEM – A new poll shows a vast majority of Israelis – secular and religious – oppose an international homosexual event scheduled to take place here this summer, while a press conference planned for yesterday in which chief religious leaders were to express their outrage over the homosexual gathering was delayed at the last minute by Israeli officials, WorldNetDaily has learned.
The poll, details of which were shared exclusively with WND, shows nearly 70 percent of the general Israeli population of Jews, Christians and Muslims are opposed to current plans for Jerusalem to host World Pride 2005, a mass international gathering of homosexual, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered individuals scheduled for August.
Nearly 100 percent of the Orthodox Jewish segments surveyed said they were opposed to the event. A poll of "non-religious" Israelis also showed a majority against the homosexual gathering.
"We weren't surprised to learn Orthodox Jews oppose holding World Pride in Jerusalem. But that secular Israelis oppose the event is extremely significant," said Ori Keidar, a lawyer hired by activists representing the Rabbinical Alliance of America, which commissioned the poll. The alliance is an Orthodox Jewish organization consisting of over 1,000 American rabbis.
The survey was conducted by veteran Israeli pollster Mina Tzemach, director of the Dahav Institute. Detailed poll results will be released to the public next week.
Rabbi Yehuda Levin, director of Jews for Morality and the delegate representing the alliance's opposition to the homosexual event, said, "The Israeli government has no excuse to allow a perverted event in the holiest city in the world to take place when clearly almost everyone in Israel is completely opposed to it."
World Pride, organized by InterPride, the International Association of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered Pride Coordinators, was previously held in 2000 in Rome, where it attracted about a quarter of a million participants. Images of the Rome festivities, featured on various homosexual websites, shows throngs of shirtless men in shorts and bikini briefs congregated on the streets, some of them holding hands.
The theme for this year's Jerusalem gathering, according to the event website, is "Love without borders," with the goal of bringing a "new focus to an ancient city through a massive demonstration of LGBT dignity, pride and boundary-crossing celebration. In these times of intolerance and suspicion, from the home of three of the world's great religions, we will proclaim that love knows no borders."
The 2005 event brochure explains Jerusalem was picked as this year's site in part to strike a religious chord.
"The struggle for acceptance and pride is particularly pointed in Jerusalem, a city that is home to three of the world's great religions. The greatest traditions of Islam, Christianity and Judaism affirm the dignity of all human beings and our creation in the divine image. Yet these same faiths have often been sources of hostility and intolerance for LGBT people," says the brochure.
"WorldPride 2005 will bring thousands of us to Jerusalem to confront preconception with reality, prejudice with an opportunity for understanding, in a way that will capture the attention of the world. Together we will proclaim that in this ancient religious city – and in this region – we, too, belong."
Levin called the gathering "a major provocation against religious sensibilities. They are planning a week filled with sinful activity, a five-day pornography film festival, parades with men wearing only underwear or less."
"Holding World Pride in Jerusalem will have a terrible spiritual and political impact, the effects of which could be catastrophic and profound. We are talking about emboldening homosexual activist groups to take more action in their proselytization of society in favor of homosexuality – the arts, the public school system, the media, and now religion."
Levin, in association with the Rabbinical Alliance, had planned what he called an "historic" press conference yesterday in Jerusalem in which some of the biggest religious names in Israel were to express their outrage over World Pride and demand the event be canceled. Speakers included Israel's two chief rabbis, Yona Metzger and Shlomo Amar, Latin Patriarch Michel Sabach, Greek patriarch Iranius, Piatro Bietro Sombi, and Grand Islamic Mufti Sheikh Temimi.
But Levin says he was asked Tuesday afternoon by Oded Weiner, director general of the Chief Rabbinate, the Israeli government's rabbinic ministry, to delay the conference. Levin said Weiner told him it was not appropriate for a private group to sponsor a conference in which official Israeli religious leaders would take part, and asked Levin to instead allow the Rabbinate to coordinate the press gathering at a later date.
Levin complied with the Rabbinic request, but says he is now worried it may have been a tactic to stop the conference from taking place.
"Some in the Israeli government want this homosexual event to happen. They don't want to see the religious powers try to bring about pressure to cancel the event."
Weiner told WND the press conference may be held next week, but he recognized the media event might not happen.
"We are checking a few things, considering all the technical stuff and talking with the people involved. We're consulting with government representatives. We will see if this press conference is necessary," said Weiner.
Levin said if the Israeli government doesn't sponsor the press conference next week, "I and other activists will make sure it happens. And we will very publicly question why it is they have been hesitant to make the conference."
Levin also blasted the Orthodox Jewish mayor of Jerusalem, Uri Lupolianski, for refusing yesterday to put his name on a petition sponsored by the alliance protesting World Pride that was signed by several Jerusalem city councilmen.
"I met with Lupolianski for the better part of an hour. It is wrong he won't do more to stop World Pride from taking place in Jerusalem. He won't even write a private letter to [Israeli Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon. He is hiding behind others for them to take on his moral responsibility to strongly and publicly oppose this homosexual convention on every level. The Rabbinical Council of America pledges to hound Mayor Lupolianski at every stage to see to it he provides the leadership that all three major religions demand."
Lupolianski has in the past protested homosexual events in Jerusalem.
Speaking about a pride parade in Jerusalem this past summer, Lupolianski said in a radio interview: "This is a horrible parade. It is not only ugly, it's also a provocation. It's not appropriate for the city, and it offends the sensibilities of its residents. Even people distant from Jerusalem must grasp that this is a sacred city for the Jewish people and the world as a whole.
"There is a difference between everyone dancing his own dance as usual, and having a parade, which is an attempt to jump up and stomp on the toes of the general public," Lupolianski said.
Other religious groups have been trying to stop the World Pride gathering. As WND reported, the Jerusalem Prayer Team, a Christian group that asks members to pray for and encourage the people of Israel, has called the planned homosexual event a moral abomination and is seeking 1 million signatures on a petition to ask Lupolianski and the Jerusalem municipality to cancel the gathering.
"This is a moral outrage," Prayer Team founder Mike Evans told WorldNetDaily. "Jerusalem is where heaven and earth met and will meet again. It is the holiest city. This event will bring to the streets homosexuals in immodest dress, in G-strings, with all kinds of pornographic images. They plan to fill the hotels and restaurants and party like Sodomites, while the world press takes pictures. It is a disgrace to the eternal holiness of Jerusalem and to its people."
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